Defnsive breakdown cost Sixers again

MILWAUKEE – The ball at his feet, while surrounded by four guys in red, Milwaukee’s Ersan Ilyasova bent at the waist to pluck the ball from the hardwood and lay in an uncontested shot under the rim.

With nothing to say, Doug Collins let his body language to do the talking. The Sixers coach turned to his team’s bench, stared at the floorboards and shook his head.

That bucket by Ilyasova, with fewer than two seconds to go in the third quarter Tuesday night, encapsulated Collins’ frustration level in one single play.

Keeping it close but keeping nothing in the tank to get any closer, the Sixers couldn’t get the stops down the stretch to prevent a 110-102 loss to the Bucks – their 16th defeat in their last 21 games.

Fittingly, it was an Ilyasova 17-footer with 2:30 to go that broke the Sixers’ backs, giving the Bucks a comfortable nine-point advantage.

Against the Sixers, it seems as though every team’s frontcourt thrives. Milwaukee’s was no different. Ilyasova victimized them for 27 points and 15 rebounds, making it back-to-back double-doubles for the inconsistent big.

Defense down low was only half of the problem for the Sixers, as evidenced by how Brandon Jennings (25 points) and Monta Ellis (18) ate them up on the perimeter.

The Sixers, on five occasions, cut Milwaukee’s lead to nine points in the third quarter. And they even got it to four in the fourth. But getting stops in the final minutes of the game proved to be too much to ask for the Sixers, who suffered a loss to San Antonio Monday in the same fashion.

The Sixers fell to 2-10 in the second game of back-to-back scenarios.

Milwaukee hit five of its first 12 looks in the fourth quarter, and two of three from 3-point range, to keep the Sixers at bay.

Spencer Hawes was big. He finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds, and chipped in a pair of fourth-quarter tip-ins to keep things tight. And Evan Turner, thanks to his stroke from beyond the 3-point line, was able to assemble back-to-back solid nights. He totaled 23 points, six rebounds and six assists.

It just wasn’t enough to fend off the Bucks (22-18). And the Sixers (17-25) have been playing to the tune of that broken record all season.

The Sixers’ shooting in the first quarter was as cold as the temperature outside the Bradley Center, which hovered in the single digits.

After spot starter Royal Ivey canned a 3-pointer in the opening minute, the Sixers forgot how to find the bottom of the net. By the time Collins called for a timeout, with 5:35 remaining in the first, the Sixers were shooting 2-for-14 and, somehow, trailed the Bucks by only six, at 12-6.

Milwaukee, behind 57-percent shooting, took a 29-18 lead into the second quarter – no surprise against a team like the Sixers, that has been on the positive side of the ledger after one quarter only 10 times this season.

Perhaps what was most frustrating about the Sixers’ woes was their inability to fully close the gap.

Out of the changeover between quarters, the Sixers got it to a four-point game, at 32-28, thanks to consecutive buckets from Evan Turner and Damien Wilkins. But then the Bucks scored six of the next eight points to restore some of that coziness in the scoring column.

Back came the Sixers, cutting into Milwaukee’s advantage with another sturdy spurt. This one, punctuated by a thunderous right-handed slam from Nick Young, made it a two-possession game, 38-33. While Young’s dunk was nice – it made Kwame Brown hum the SportsCenter theme from his spot on the bench – it acted as a motivator for Milwaukee.

The Bucks staged a 10-4 run after Young’s dunk, opening up an 11-point lead, 48-37. Eventually, they headed into the locker room ahead of the Sixers, 55-47.

Even with Milwaukee playing as well as it did in the opening half, the Bucks left the door open.

The Sixers managed to cut the Bucks’ lead to single digits five times in the third quarter, but never any further. It was almost as though the Sixers were content to keep their deficit right there.

That is, until a fourth-quarter run got them within five.

Turner knocked down a corner 3-pointer, his fourth of the game to that point, Spencer Hawes had an old-fashioned 3-point play and Holiday finished off a fastbreak fueled by a Lavoy Allen block with a layup at the other end.

With Hawes starting the second half in place of Allen, it finally might have gotten to the point where Hawes usurps Allen as the starting center for the Sixers – which might been the only positive development for them in this quick stopover in the Brew City.